


The Clash of the Marauders

by Dragonkeeper14



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:20:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27731443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonkeeper14/pseuds/Dragonkeeper14
Summary: In which two wizards, Sirius 'Padfoot' Black and Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew, accuse each other of betraying their friends, Lily and James Potter, and fight over it…





	The Clash of the Marauders

The scene was one of a crowded London foot-path in the middle of a busy afternoon, full of people going to and fro, this way and that, down one road and up another, into buildings and out of them, all intent on their daily affairs; but the likeness to an ordinary day in the Machine Age was spoilt by the presence of two strangely-attired figures in the middle of the street, shouting insults. In another day and age, this might have been mere commonplace, especially in London; but at the time of this story, the argument, and its very presence in public, was as out of fashion as the close-fitting ankle-length robes in which the two men were clad. One was tall, slender, and handsome, though distorted from his original good looks by a mixture of sorrow and anger; the other, short and stout, and pleasant-faced, though likewise contorted by similar emotions. Both carried thin wooden wands in their hands, and held them in a sort of fencing-stance, as if about to cross them like swords. 

The smaller man cried out: 'Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?!'.

The bigger man, whose name seemed to be Sirius, answered: 'How could I?! Why, you dirty, treacherous, two-faced, double-crossing, backsliding;––' he seemed to search for a word revolting enough to encompass all the disgust his former friend inspired in him, and finally settled on 'Rat!'; which, though it sounded unequal to the task, startled his enemy for a moment. In that moment, Sirius swung his wand, as if it were a sword indeed, and something like an invisible blade struck at his opponent. The latter, though taken by surprise, raised his own wand, and suffered nothing more than a scratch. 

At that, Sirius struck again and again, only to be deflected each time; then conjured a dozen fiery arrows out of thin air, and sent them all at his opponent at once. The opponent raised his own wand and conjured shields, which stopped the arrows; and both shield and arrow vanished. 

Said Sirius: 'I'll have your blood for this, Peter! You promised me I could trust you!'.

Peter, as his opponent's name appeared to be, answered in kind: 'And you promised Lily and James they could trust you! And you let them down, Sirius!'.

Sirius said: 'Blast you!', and hurled a salvo of fireballs and bolts of lightning, to suit the action to the word. Peter conjured a transparent orb around himself, and all the missiles glanced off and disappeared; then fought back with what looked like a chain of purple flame. Sirius deflected that with a flick of his wand, then swung it again, like a drover cracking a whip. A stream of white flame sprang from it and lashed at Peter; but he deflected it in turn, and stood unharmed. Now, he retaliated with a barrage of cobble-stones, snatched from the road with a wave of his own wand, and sent flying forth like meteorites. This time, it was Sirius who raised a protective transparent orb; and the stones fell all around him and lay still. Sirius let his protective charm fall, levitated all the stones at once, and encased Peter in them, until he was covered in a lopsided ball of cobbles. With that, Sirius levitated the stones, with Peter still in them; conjured a giant magnifying-glass in the air; and concentrated the sunlight on the stones, until they glowed red. Peter twirled on the spot, vanished, and re-appeared on the ground, where he knocked his adversary staggering with a jet of water. 

Under pressure, Sirius stumbled backward, recovered his footing, and conjured a transparent umbrella at the tip of his wand; then started forward, and forced the water aside and back with every step, until Peter gave up before Sirius had closed half the distance between them, and let the water stop. Instead, he conjured a swarm of wasps, which flew at Sirius with their stings extended. Sirius, in turn, filled the remaining gap with winged frogs, to eat the wasps. Said he: 'Is that the best you can do?!', and threw a moving wall of flame at Peter, who waved his wand and made it disappear. With that, Peter wrapped Sirius in a ball of darkness, which seemed to contract around him; but Sirius conjured a light as bright as sunshine, and the darkness vanished. 

Now, Sirius conjured a battering-ram with an explosive head, and threw it at Peter; but Peter called down a gigantic silver fist, and stopped it in mid-flight. Then both waved their creations aside and fought for a moment with flaming spears and shields. When these ran out, they conjured translucent armour and weapons as big as themselves, and fought hand-to-hand; and when these too faded, Sirius struck first, with a whirling, roaring, turning, howling, ground-shattering beam of freezing cold. Peter destroyed it with a beam of steady heat; then turned that beam on Sirius, until his hair curled and his lips cracked. With his wand, Sirius swept the heat-ray aside and conjured with a blast of wind, which nearly knocked his enemy down; but the intended victim sank himself into the floor and stayed upright, until the wind fell. Sirius said a few words, and Peter's hands trembled; but with an effort, he stilled them again, and conjured two giant hands, which seized Sirius. 

Sirius answered: 'Taking a leaf out of my book, are you?', and leapt out of the grasp of the enchanted hands; then twirled his wand and conjured a cyclone, which spun at his opponent, tearing up everything in its path. Peter twirled his own wand in the opposite direction, and the cyclone spun back to Sirius, who merely flicked his wand once, and it vanished. Peter drew a circle three times in the air, and threw it at his opponent, who caught it on the tip of his wand and threw it back to Peter, who unravelled it. 

Now, Sirius swung his wand again, and a squadron of cavalry appeared from the air and charged at his enemy. Peter in turn raised another transparent barrier, and the phantom horses and men all broke against it and faded away. With that, he raised his wand again and conjured up a tremendous blast of heat, sound, light, and electricity, all rolled into one. Sirius met this blast with one of his own, and they struggled back and forth for some minutes, each trying to force his opponent's power back to its originator, and his own with it. 

All this time, the passersby in the street were stopped and staring in wonder at the fantastic spectacle. To these, Peter shouted: 'He betrayed Lily and James! He told their murderer where they were hiding! He's to blame!'. At that, Sirius startled, and Peter took advantage of his pause and shoved the doubled beam of energy as hard as he could. The seething mass of their mingled power exploded in a blinding flash.

When the blast cleared, the street was torn open, and so were the pipes, tunnels, water-mains, and sewers below. The gas-lines and electric cables were in flames, and there were debris everywhere. There was no sign of Peter, except a heap of clothes and ashes, and a single severed finger. A dozen bystanders lay dead. On the other side of the crater stood Sirius, staring in shock; then a strange look came over his face, and he laughed, like a man who suddenly sees the joke played on himself. 

Moments later, several men in dark robes appeared out of nowhere on all sides, and took Sirius prisoner on the spot. He went quietly with them, still laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> In the original book, Prof. McGonagall calls Wormtail 'hopeless at duelling'; but she said this when she thought he'd lost, and so one can hardly place reliance in it. A man 'hopeless at duelling' is not one to blow up a street to cover his escape. But I never believed in his blowing it up 'behind his back', either; his weapon was a magic wand, after all, not a packet of dynamite. I think my version supplies a passable alternative.


End file.
